


tulips and paychecks

by topsecretramen



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Broke College Student Soobin, Cooking Problems Away, Flower boy Yeonjun, Fluff, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sad Choi Soobin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2019-11-18 03:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18112466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/topsecretramen/pseuds/topsecretramen
Summary: Choi Soobin is an unfortunate business student, extremely low on funds, and in need of a job if he wants to somehow make it to graduation. Desperate, he looks for a job at the local flower shop, where Yeonjun and his Auntie dedicate their lives everyday. With their guidance, Choi Soobin gets more out of this job than just the simple paycheck he was originally intending for.





	1. Can I Help You?

With the current funds left in his bank account, Choi Soobin wouldn’t have lasted another month in his small, run-down apartment over 30 minutes away from campus. Business Administration may be one of the most well-established and prestigious programs on the university grounds, but it is also one of the most expensive. Soobin knows he had to find a job as soon as possible if he wants to make it out of college with a diploma, which is why he now finds himself in front of the flower shop right outside of campus.

The storefront is painted a light shade of pink, tulips, daffodils, and daisies adorning the large window. Soobin stands in front of the doorway, hesitant to push the door open. After getting rejected from virtually every other store, restaurant, and cafe in the entire city, this was his last hope. Letting out one final sigh before forcing a cheery smile, he enters the small and quaint shop, causing a soft, high-pitched ding of the doorbell as he walks in. Soobin is greeted by a chipper “Hi!” from the back of the store, a figure bent over tending to some tulips. He cautiously examines his surroundings, the huge array of various flowers covers almost every inch of the store. Soobin couldn’t decide if the shop was extremely messy or nicely organized. Maybe it was some sort of organized chaos, who knew. He takes a couple steps towards the figure at the back of the store.

“How may I help you?” asks the figure, straightening back up to reveal himself to be a boy, probably no more than a year older than Soobin, a small name tag with “Yeonjun” written in barely legible handwriting.

Soobin stands there, not even realizing the extremely handsome boy behind the counter had even asked him a question. “Uh, hello? Can I help you?” repeats the confused Yeonjun, wondering why a random boy would enter the store on a day that’s not Valentine’s.

Soobin shakes his head in realization, “oh, I’m sorry. Uh-, I’m here for a job? Do you happen to be hiring?” his voice trembling.

Yeonjun chuckles to himself, lowering his head before raising it again to respond, “Let me go check with my aunt. She owns the place,” a smile still on his face.

He heads into a backroom for a moment, and Soobin is left to awkwardly admire the cute little store around him. Soobin begins to wonder what could possibly be in the backroom: a room of more flowers and an older woman tending to them? Possibly a home? A secret lab? The boy start to stare at the lovely daisies on the counter in front of him. Next to them were flowers that were the most brilliant shades of reds, purples, and pinks. He touches one, wondering what type it is. If he had any funds at all to spend on flowers, he would have picked these instantly.

Yeonjun suddenly bursts back into the main room, somehow the smile from before even wider and more happy than before. “Auntie says you’re hired! You’re good with Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-7? And all day on weekends? She will handle the rest”

If Soobin had any form of common sense, he would have thought that the offer was a bit suspicious, but with his desperation for a job, he just nods his head in agreement but soon realizing it was in fact, Tuesday and 4:02 PM. “W-wait, does this mean starting right now?”

“I mean, I can start showing the ropes and Auntie needs all the help she could get!” responds the chipper flower boy.

Yeonjun walks to the side, grabs an apron that was a bit too muddy for Soobin’s privileged and spoiled cityboy tastes, and throws it to the new employee. Soobin’s desperation for money puts on the apron and waits for the other boy to climb over the counter. Yeonjun begins to passionately point out all the various types of flowers in the store, much to Soobin’s surprising amusement. Yeonjun seems to know everything about every flower, every stem, every single leaf in the store, and to Soobin it was fascinating. He spends the next few hours, going back and forth from dealing with customers and explaining the flowers to Soobin, showing him everything from the cheap peonies to his personal favorite, the tulips. After many long explanations about soil types and fertilizers, the two boys finally reach the end, the lovely flowers that Soobin had been so fascinated by earlier. “And these are the Anemones. These are originally found in Southeastern Europe, and they are very lovely”

  
Soobin stares at the flowers that he fell in love with earlier. Anemones. Somehow, knowing the name of the flowers made him love them even more. They felt more special than the previous hours of other flowers that Yeonjun explained; it was like they could speak to him. He reached out for another touch, before getting his hand slapped away by Yeonjun. “Hey! They just bloomed yesterday! Be more careful!”

Embarrassed, Soobin hides his hands behind his back and gives a quick “Sorry!”

He looks out the window and is shocked to see that the sun is now setting. It was already well past seven, and Soobin had a paper due at midnight. Oh crap, Soobin thought to himself. Practically throwing his apron, “I’m so sorry, thank you for today, but I got to head home!” Soobin frantically pushes his way past Yeonjun and dashes out of the store.


	2. What are you doing here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao i'm alive!! i graduated high school! please enjoy because I love Soobin and Yeonjun so much.

It is times like these that Soobin really regrets renting an apartment almost 3 miles from school. If he had more than 4 bucks on him, he would have definitely hailed a taxi or called an uber, but in a desperate time like this, he is forced to just run. He isn’t technically out of shape, but his love of bread doesn’t make him exactly fit to run three straight miles home. By the time he is able to barely climb up the stairs to his apartment, Soobin is struggling to catch his breath. He flops into his bedroom, barely able to manage out a “Hi” to his roommate Beomgyu. Soobin pulls up his laptop, opens up a Google Doc, and begins to furiously type, mindlessly filling up his word count because, at this point, a C would have been better than an F.

It’s 11:53 when Soobin hits submit on his paper. He finally lets out a sigh of relief, before reflecting on his earlier experiences at the flower shop. Soobin smiles at the thought of Yeonjun, going on and on about peonies and daisies and hydrangeas. He had never met anyone so passionate for something as small as simple flowers. It is a nice change from the constantly stressed out and unmotivated business students that surrounded him every day. At this point of the year, midterms were beginning to suck the soul out of all the students including Soobin himself, but Yeonjun seemed to not have a care in the world besides his flowers. He almost drifts asleep on his chair, before realizing he hadn’t even taken a shower after messing with potted plants all day, running three miles home, and writing a 5,000-word paper.

Soobin steps into the shower, and he could have honestly fallen asleep standing up with the steaming hot water hitting his body. The boy has a class at 8AM tomorrow morning, and somehow time had already flown well past 2. _Five hours of sleep if I go to sleep now and leave early to get coffee before class_ , Soobin thinks to himself. He often calculates the amount of sleep he would get in his late night homework sessions. Soobin quickly finishes up his shower and gets ready to crash on his bed, exhausted from an unexpectedly loaded Tuesday.

The next day, Soobin struggles to concentrate on his 8 AM Accounting class. _Who even puts an accounting class this early in the morning?_ Going to bed only a couple of hours earlier, even with the iced americano, Soobin isn’t able to even process the words coming out of his professor’s lecture. But oddly enough, as tired as he is, he wants to return to the flower shop. He isn’t supposed to work on Wednesdays according to what Yeonjun told him, but it couldn’t hurt to stop by and offer some help, right?

Lecture ends and Soobin begins to bounce from class to class; Wednesdays are his most packed days, but for some reason, he was still planning on skipping his afternoon nap for the flower shop. His final class finally ends, and Soobin makes a dash for the flower shop. He is happy to see it the same as it was the day before, only with even more flowers outside. This time, bright and blooming orchids adorned the sides of the shop front. Soobin walks into the store, somehow more awake now than previously for any of his classes.

The bell rings, and Soobin merrily walks towards the cash register, where Yeonjun is staring at his phone. “Hey Yeonjun, just wanted to stop by the shop again today!” Soobin cheerily says, startling the other guy as he looks up from his phone.

Instead of the chipper smile Yeonjun had on yesterday, Soobin was met with a shockingly distressed look, as if he wasn’t supposed to be there. Suddenly he gets a response out of the other boy, “What are you doing here? You know it’s Wednesday right?”

Soobin is not expecting that type of response. His smile quickly turns to a confused look. “B-but why? Is everything alright?” Soobin asks, now being pushed out the store by the upset-looking boy.

“I can’t really explain, see you tomorrow!” Yeonjun exclaims before pushing Soobin completely out of the store.

Soobin stands where he is, startled by all the confusion of what just happened. It feels like he just met a completely different person from the friendly and enthusiastic boy he had met yesterday. Soobin starts to walk away from the flower shop, questioning every possibility and reason that could explain why Yeonjun was suddenly so distressed to see him. _What if he’s a part of the mafia and is expecting a payment from someone soon? What if he’s a drug dealer and the flower shop is a coverup for his operation?_ Soobin snaps himself out of it. _Pfft, that’s crazy. There is some reasonable explanation; don’t dwell on it, Soobin._ Soobin continues his walk home, expecting to take that usual afternoon nap after all. But Soobin can’t seem to shake off the events that had occurred. There was a heart-sinking feeling in his chest that he couldn’t seem to explain. He releases a heavy sigh. _Is this heartbreak?_ But the idea of heartbreak seems stupid to Soobin. He met the boy yesterday, and he didn’t have a thing for guys to begin with. He reaches his apartment complex, tries to shake it off one last time before climbing up the stair to meet his roommate.

Soobin opens to door to his apartment, trying to fake a smile to make it seem like nothing was wrong. “Hey Beomgyu! Is it my turn to cook dinner tonight?” He says as he drops his backpack in the corner before walking into the living room to see his roommate deep in a game of Overwatch at his computer.

Beomgyu looks around to acknowledge his roommate and says, “Yea, I found some cheap chicken thighs at Costco earlier. Make something with that,” but he notices the ingenuine expression on his roommate’s face.

The boy turns back around, makes his character intentionally jump into the enemy team, causing him to die, and gets up to talk to Soobin, who had just opened the refrigerator to grab the chicken thighs that his roommate had just mentioned. Bromgyu knows his friend too well and can easily see that Soobin was faking happiness right now. “Hey what’s up bro. I can tell something’s not right” Beomgyu says to Soobin, trying his best to act like his roommate is not onto him.

“It’s nothing Beomgyu, just a long day of classes. I think I’m going to skip my nap today” Soobin tries to cover up.

Beomgyu knows that Soobin will not give up the act, no matter how caught up in the lie he might be, so Beomgyu musters out a simple “Ok” before going back to his computer. Soobin, on the other hand, is happy to finally get to release some of his emotions in the form of cooking. Chopping up chicken is almost cathartic for him, and Soobin soon forgets the sadness that overwhelmed him earlier as he put the food into the oven to bake away. It is as if he was cooking way his problems away, and when the timer dings, Soobin seems to have completely forgotten about the events from earlier that day. “Beomgyu! Food’s done. Get your ass in here!” Soobin yells, despite knowing how paper thin his walls were and that his neighbors could hear.

Beomgyu walks into the kitchen, seeing a completely different Soobin from earlier, with a genuinely happy demeanor this time, and smiles as he grabs a plate of chicken and vegetables to eat next to his roommate. He doesn’t know what had occurred earlier, but he is happy to see that Soobin had snapped out of it for the time being.

After dinner, Soobin heads into his room to take a shower. He is suddenly reminded of him laying in bed just yesterday remembering the nice time he had with Yeonjun. Soobin lets out another heavy sigh before grabbing some pajamas and heading into the shower, hoping tomorrow at work wouldn’t be too awkward.


End file.
